Harvest

We are getting to the end of harvest season (though I am constantly surprised at how many tomatoes continue to be coming out of the garden), and it is sad for sure but as a person who loves the anticipation of what is around the next corner I look forward to what fall and then winter bring.


We have long been advocates of living locally and we certainly try to buy or grow as much local and seasonal foods as possible (though make no pretense at perfection). This year we made our first attempts at preserving as much of that bounty as possible. For the most part this has been a fun process but in the context of life with two little kids it was challenging to find the time and there were certainly a few late nights this summer trying to put the food by.
The first step in our path of preserving was to purchase a chest freezer. It is amazing how much this has allowed us to put away in a fairly low labor intensive way. We have pounds and pounds of blueberries, strawberries, cherries, raspberries and blackberries (undeniably my favorite!). We also blanched and froze zucchini, green beans, tomato puree and several batches of pesto. And for the first time we bought beef, an 1/8 of a cow to be exact. Now some of you may find that odd as many identify Todd as a vegetarian. It is true that the majority of our diet at home is plant-based, but Todd likes meat. So when he thought about the reasons he was a vegetarian it was in response to the treatment of the animal and a revulsion of the meat from a Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO). So we found a really really nice local guy named Tim Jefferies who has a small ranch of free-range grass fed happy cows. We still don't eat much meat (that 1/8 cow will last us all year long likely), but we can feel good about the meat we do eat.

40lbs of gorgeous beef in the freezer....




....just the top layer of our bags of berries!





So in addition to freezing we also canned a lot this year. We canned tomato sauce, whole tomatoes, salsa, pickles, dilly beans, peaches, and jams. We have canned jams in the past but these were our first attempts at other stuff, and it went relatively smoothly. I figure every
year we will try new canning recipes and repeat our favorites (maybe by the time we are 60 we'll have it down to a science). We have an unfinished basement which is probably not cold enough to be a root cellar, but I think for our purposes it will be fine. It is unbelievably satisfying to see the shelves lined with jars of canned goods. Seriously, I take everyone who comes to our house down there to show them, like its a new toy or something. I never thought the ides of having homemade tomato sauce on our pizzas this winter would get me so pumped!













Please take note if you would of the upper left corner. That my friends is 16 glorious quarts of blackberry, raspberry and cherry infused vodka!! (The winters will be warm in our house) Now I am all for putting food by, but really a girl has got to have a little fun!!!

In the end our favorite thing to grow is our kids, so a blog entry wouldn't be complete without mention of them. Both kids were in the garden with us, picking cherries, raspberries and blueberries. They have an uncanny ability to find that unnoticed zucchini (allowed to grow ginormously huge) and the red tomatoes hidden under branches. It gives me unparalleled joy to see Lucy pluck a ripe tomato off the vine and bite into it like an apple, or Riley up in a tree snacking on cherries. It is our hope that they have a understanding and relationship with the food on their plate that is unusual in today's culture....but hopefully making a comeback.